An exhibit honoring
Court of Appeal Justice Paul Boland, who died in 2007, was unveiled in a
ceremony late Wednesday afternoon at the Children’s Courthouse in Monterey
Park, the centerpiece being a huge painting of Boland towering over the
building.

Boland had
served as Los Angeles Juvenile Court presiding judge in 1998 and 1999. The
current presiding judge, Michael Nash, told those assembled that Boland
conceived of and formulated plans for the innovative courthouse, designed to
minimize intimidation for children attending proceedings.

Nash
said that even though Boland—who went on to the Court of Appeal in 2001—never
sat in the courthouse, he senses the late jurist’s presence there.

Emceeing
the ceremony was Patricia Phillips of Phillips Jessner LLP, a former Los Angeles
County Bar Assn. president and founding chair of LACBA’s Senior Lawyers
Section.

That
section sponsored the project in conjunction with Comfort for Court Kids Inc.,
which provides a free teddy bear to each child coming to the courthouse. Its
president, L. Ernestine Fields, and Phillips spearheaded the effort to install
the exhibit.

Phillips
said it was Nash who came up with the idea.

U.S.
District Judge Margaret Morrow, Boland’s widow, was present, with their son,
Patrick Boland. Morrow said that many had suggested various memorials to
Boland, but the only one she and the son gave approval to was the one at the
Children’s Courthouse.

She
said her late husband, himself, would not have approved because he disliked
tributes to himself.

Awards
were given to financial sponsors, who also were listed on the program. Phillips
mentioned that she had promised them that their names would be etched on a
plaque on the wall, but it emerged that doing so would contravene a court
policy against giving recognition to attorney donors.

Several
of those who were colleagues of Boland were among those in attendance,
including Court of Appeal Presiding Justices Roger Boren, Norman Epstein and
Dennis Perluss, and a Los Angeles Superior Court presiding judge under whom he
served, Richard P. Byrne (now retired). The current Superior Court presiding
judge Lee Edmon was present as was her husband, Richard Burdge, who was sworn
in last night as Los Angeles County Bar Assn. president.

•Former Los
Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti is involving himself in
fundraising for the mayoral bid of his son, Los Angeles City Council member
Eric Garcetti.

In
a campaign e-mail, dispatched, the former DA says:

“As
Father’s Day approaches, I’ve been thinking about how Eric has always made me
incredibly proud—on the Little League field, in the classroom and as a public
servant. I could go on and on about his past accomplishments, but I think it’s
more important to talk about what he wants to do next: My son is running for
Mayor of Los Angeles to move our city in a new direction.

“Eric
is seeking to leverage new ideas to push L.A. to compete in the new economy. To
ensure every L.A. neighborhood is fertile ground for opportunity. And to make
City Hall a place that works for the people.

“But
having the best ideas isn’t enough to win this race. Eric’s campaign must have
the resources necessary to communicate those ideas to the people of Los
Angeles. We need the support of people like you—Angelenos who care about our
city and who take action to make a difference.”

The
elder Garcetti asks that recipients click on a link to make a financial
contribution.

•William J. Becker Jr., a West Los
Angeles attorney, yesterday sent out this press release:

The Santa Monica
City Council Tuesday night ended a nearly 60-year-old Christmas tradition of
allowing Nativity displays in Palisades Park overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Responding
to a clamor of opposition from atheists concerning the religious displays, the
council voted unanimously 5-0 (with two members absent) to ban all displays
from the park.

“The City has
abdicated its duty to protect the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech
and the free exercise of religion within a traditional public forum—a city
park,” said William J. Becker Jr., a First Amendment attorney and lead counsel
for the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, a group that has been seeking
to preserve the Nativity Scenes tradition. “The city council members
surrendered to the angry mob, and in the process sent the world a message that
religious freedom is not worth protecting in Santa Monica.”

Last year, the
city instituted a controversial lottery system. That system led to disputes
over the fairness of the new rules when lottery-winning atheist groups
displayed signs and banners attacking Christian beliefs and left a full block
within the park empty.

Last week,
attorneys for the Nativity Scenes group sent a letter to the city council
urging it to delay action on the proposed ban. In spite of that letter and
throngs of local residents who appeared in support of the holiday tradition,
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie stepped up her support for the ban on unattended
displays.

“The city lacked
the will to come up with a creative solution to the problem of accommodating
the anti-religion agitators, and caved in to their demands to remove a
universally cherished symbol of the Christmas season from its traditional place
in Palisades Park,” Becker said. “This act represents an erosion rather than an
expansion of First Amendment vitality in America.”

The Nativity
Scenes Committee is studying its options, but has not yet determined whether it
will file a lawsuit. Becker said the Committee will make a decision sometime
soon.